Thursday, October 12, 2006

While the cat is away......

My husband went away for two days. I had great plans. You see, he is the family cook and the kitchen is mainly his. But I like to use the kitchen bench to cut fabric on because it is a nice height. The problem is that he gets priority because feeding the family is considered more important. (I don’t quite know who came up with that idea.) So I decided that I would try something new as I had a few hours to myself as well as a clear kitchen bench.
Back at Easter time I picked up two lots of Ricky Tims convergence fabric for $5 a metre (a great buy in Australian standards). I was going to use it just as backing until I thought that I should try actually making a Harmonic Convergence quilt. I thought it was a good exercise. The first half was fine – I had no problems with that at all.

By the time I was ready to do the second half the kids were home from school and all of a sudden I was cutting fabric between sandwich toasters, juice, butter, jam and Noise!!!!!! I have realised that it is highly likely that Ricky Tims has a beautiful studio where he doesn’t have to deal with four starving children after school. I don’t know why I thought I was Superwoman and kept cutting. And yep, I messed it up. One of my cuts was the wrong measurement and there are two the same size now. Too bad…..


Did I achieve what I set out to do? Yes, I did – I worked through an interesting technique, and learnt something new. It was interesting to see how it would turn out.
My evaluation – well, I don’t really love what I ended up with. I have seen some beautiful convergence quilts. I think mine has too much contrast and looks like a checkerboard to me. This could also be because I messed up the measurements too. I used fabric I had and I think it would have been nicer if it blended more. I also learnt that I should stop when things get crazy – but it is so hard to do that when you want to finish something. It will still make a fine table topper – or I may make it into a larger quilt. It didn’t cost me much and was well worth doing, but next time I’ll stop when the kids get home. And maybe that October goal of making my own little sewing area has just gained more priority. Dream on……

4 comments:

Joyce said...

THe quilt looks good to me. I like the colors you have used. I hear you about the sewing space. For years I sewed at the kitchen table and now I have a studio. It's so nice to not have to put everythig away when you need to cook etc.

Jenni said...

You've got to get yourself a sewing space. No doubt. It's good to try something new - I'm gearing up for the plunge into my blue and green quilt. Maybe you could put a border around your square and give it to one of the kids if you don't like it - a boy's quilt. I think it looks pretty cool though.

Dianne said...

I've always been interested in the convergence quilt idea, but never tried it. Thanks for sharing your experience, Bettsy. I think the experiment turned out beautifully!

BTW, I love your log cabin quilt, too...

Laurie said...

I really like the quilt, and the contrast between colors. It's very eye-catching.

Every time I see one of these, I think that I'll have to make one someday.